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Reference Type web
Title Indie-Eye.It: Interview with Rolf De Heer
Chapter/Web article title Interview with Rolf De Heer
State Unknown
Country Unknown
Publication Date
Citation Date
Site URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XZi9fd1f4w
Comments This is an interview with Rolf de Heer from Indie-Eye.It, a website for Dutch cinema.



When asked about silent film, being a different language, De Heer decides instead to talk about how Dr Plonk was created. De Heer talks about finding seven thousand meters(20,000 feet) of old film stock that he wanted to use, and claims that this was the only project that allowed him to make the most of it.



He talks about how making an analysis on his films isn’t something he considers doing while he’s making it. Instead he suggests, it’s more the role of the audience to analyze a film once it is a finished product, and read into it from their own perspective, but that it isn’t an aspect that’s involved in the production process from the beginning.



Similarly when asked if Werner Herzog has had an influence on his filmmaking, he responds by suggesting that it is something left to the audience to assume, but consciously what he has done with Dr Plonk is quite different to what Herzog does.



When asked about the role of music in his films he offers a comparison between Ten Canoes(his previous film) and Dr Plonk. He says he considers it very important in Dr Plonk, and talks of some of the different ways which music can be used in film.

The most interesting aspect of this article is that De Heer is quite open and concise with his responses, and often shifts the topic of the question asked, to where we as the readers want him to go. He talks about openness in a film’s script, and suggests it can be appropriate, but at times a film’s script needs to be precise in its design. He also talks a little about his decision to use non-professional actors in his films, which he did in Dr Plonk, with Nigel Lunghi who plays the eponymous role being a street performer.



Finally he is asked about what his next project will be. De Heer opens up about his desire to take a break from film and have a rest, after working on five consecutive films.



This video interview contains many weak and poorly formulated questions, but the answers that De Heer gives are exactly what one wants to hear when digging for a little more information on the production of Dr Plonk. De Heer is quite open in his responses, and he is quite straight forward with what he says.



This interview has been removed from the original site, and now only exists on YouTube.
Synopsis This is an interview with director Rolf De Heer, in which he discusses working on Dr Plonk, how the idea came about, his influences and his process and approach to making film.
tags: Dr Plonk Magda Szubanski Nigel Lunghi Paul Blackwell Rolf De Heer 
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